Better jobs, better programs, better healthcare

A new collaboration between MCC, Cerner Corporation and the University of Missouri officially launched this month when 14 MCC students began an internship program at the company’s North Kansas City headquarters.

The internship program, called KCIT, is designed to provide MCC students with valuable work experience while addressing Cerner’s need for a pipeline of specially-skilled healthcare IT professionals. After a competitive interview process, the MCC students were selected from a large pool of student applicants for the paid internship positions.

Each intern will work 20 hours per week at Cerner while taking classes towards an associate’s degree in information technology. Upon degree completion, interns will be eligible to apply for full-time employment with Cerner. Those hired will, after a specified period of employment, be eligible for tuition assistance to pursue a bachelor’s degree at the University of Missouri.

MCC’s role in the partnership is supporting efforts to enhance MCC’s information technology
curricula. Faculty and staff from across the district are working together to update existing programs to better align with the needs of Cerner and other technologically advanced employers.

Cindy Herbert, CSIS faculty and program coordinator at MCC-Longview, and Tom Wheeler, dean of instruction at MCC-Business & Technology, are leading an effort to revamp parts of the CSIS curriculum. Both are enthusiastic about how the program is already creating positive curriculum changes.

“The MCC-Cerner partnership couldn’t have come at a better time!” said Herbert. “The computer science department has been working on curriculum modifications as we strive to maintain alignment with changing industry demands. The KCIT project has provided CSIS faculty the opportunity to collaborate with Cerner’s IT personnel while making those changes. The partnership also gives students hands-on experience and a chance to apply the principles and theories they are learning in the classroom.”

A collaborative group made up of faculty and staff from several campuses and the Institute for Workforce Innovation are coordinating the internship program’s curricular enhancements and other partnership details.

“The Cerner project is a perfect example of how we should be working hand-in-hand with employers,” said Margaret Boyd, director of workforce development for the Institute for Workforce Innovation. “Cerner came to MCC with an immediate need for employees with very specific IT skills. We said ‘We can do that.’ We’ve come together to create a program that affords our students valuable workplace experience and allows MCC to enhance some existing programs, while developing an alliance that will continue to benefit our students and support our mission.”

Interviews for the second class of KCIT interns will begin in April.